824 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1040 



amount and quality of tke meteorological ma- 

 terial published in the first sis numbers amply 

 justifies the change of this periodical back to 

 its position as the national meteorological 

 magazine. 



The daily weather maps of the northern 

 hemisphere issued by the Weather Bureau 

 were discontinued on August 6 on account of 

 lack of European weather reports. 



The European meteorological magazines 

 are still being received regularly, although 

 late. 



" The Clouds of California," an address by 

 Dr. Ford A. Carpenter before the Occidental 

 College, has been published.'' The discussion 

 concerns not only the cloudiness of California, 

 but also includes information about the com- 

 position and formation of clouds. 



W. BiEBER^ has introduced a new factor to 

 explain the blue of the sky. According to 

 him, the action of ultraviolet light forms 

 NH.lSrO, + H,0, a thin bluish fog in the 

 stratosphere. The blue of the sky is also as- 

 cribed to the action on light of dust particles, 

 exceedingly small, snow crystals, air mole- 

 cules, water vapor and ozone. Eecent obser- 

 vations on high mountains show the presence 

 of sufficient ozone alone to account for the 

 sky color.® 



In Symons's Meteorological Magazine for 

 several months there has been a discussion of 

 unusual visibility of distant objects as a prog- 

 nostic of rain. Haziness is due to the amount 

 and visibility of the dust and other particles 

 in the air and to optical disturbances caused 

 principally by temperature differences. So 

 the cloudiness usually preceding rain reduces 

 dust haziness by cutting off the bright illumi- 

 nation of the particles, and reduces the optical 

 haze by preventing the unequal heating of 

 the lower air and the establishment of con- 

 vectional currents. However, wind blowing 

 from the direction of a city, which may be 



' 18 pages. See Nature, London, August 6, 1914, 

 p. 592. 



8 Meieorologische ZeitscJirift, July, 1914, pp. 

 358-359. 



9 See Scientific American Supplement, September 

 19, 1914, p. 179. 



even far away, generally makes the air more 

 hazy.i* 



"British Eainfall, 1913" contains rainfall 

 returns from 5,370 stations during the year. 

 Complete daily records were received from 

 3,370 stations and less complete daily returns 

 from 364 others. For the stations sending 

 these daily records, the density for the British 

 Isles is roughly 42 per 1,000 square miles. 

 The January, 1914, issue of Glimatological 

 Data for the United States hy Sections in- 

 cludes daily rainfall records from 4,391 sta- 

 tions. Thus for the United States, as a whole, 

 the number of rainfall stations is but 1.4 per 

 1,000 square miles. Even Rhode Island, the 

 state with greatest density of rainfall stations, 

 has but 8 per 1,000 square miles. Nevada has 

 0.6 for the same area. It is little wonder that 

 the climatic maps of the United States are 

 lacking in detail as compared with the British 

 ones. 



Charles F. Brooks 



BuBEAu OF Plant Industry, 

 Washington, D. C, 

 Ootober 26, 1914 



SPECIAL ASTICLES 

 SOME PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF THE CELL NUCLEUS 



Investigations on the physical properties of 

 protoplasm have received fresh impetus 

 through the introduction by Kite^ of Barber's 

 pipette holder for dissection purposes. By 

 means of fine glass needles manipulated in this 

 holder it is possible to undertake the dissec- 

 tion of fresh tissue under the highest magni- 

 fication of the microscope. 



My results in cell dissection largely sub- 

 stantiate Kite's general statements on the con- 

 sistency and physical make-up of protoplasm. 



In this paper I wish to present the results of 

 studies made on the nucleus of the male germ 

 cells of the grasshopper, Disosteira Carolina, 



10 See Nature, London, August 6, 1914, p. 592. 



1 G. L. Kite and Eobert Chambers, Jr., "Vital 

 Staining of Chromosomes and the Fuaetion and 

 Structure of the Nucleus, ' ' Science, N. S., 

 XXXVI., p. 639, 1912; a. L. Kite, "Studies on 

 the Physical Properties of Protoplasm," Am. 

 Jour. Phys., XXXIL, p. 146, 1913. 



